The AI-powered English dictionary
plural scarps
The steep artificial slope below a fort's parapet. examples
(geology) A cliff at the edge of a plateau or ridge caused by erosion or faulting; the steeper side of an escarpment. quotations
Sweating under the sun, we scale the barren eastern scarp of the Great Rift Valley (Area B), edging carefully around controversial, razor-wired Israeli settlements (Area C).
2014, Paul Salopek, Blessed. Cursed. Claimed., National Geographic (December 2014)
(heraldry) Obsolete spelling of scarpe, scrape quotations examples
[...] as in the seventh, which is Argent a Scarp Azure.
1673, Matthew Carter, Honor Redivivus: Or, The Analysis of Honor and Armory, page 211
He beareth Argent, a Scarp, Azure.
1724, John Guillim, A Display of Heraldry, page 38
third-person singular simple present scarps, present participle scarping, simple past and past participle scarped
(earth science, geography, transitive) to cut, scrape, erode, or otherwise make into a scarp or escarpment quotations examples
From scarped cliff and quarried stone
1850, [Alfred, Lord Tennyson], In Memoriam, London: Edward Moxon, […], (please specify |part=Prologue or Rpilogue, or |canto=I to CXXIX)
For thou, O Spring! canst renovate / All that high God did first create. / […] / Sweep ruins from the scarped mountain, / Cleanse the torrent at the fountain, […]
1867, Ralph Waldo Emerson, “May-Day”, in May-Day and Other Pieces, Boston, Mass.: Ticknor and Fields, page 38